A Strange Thing Called Love
by thedeardeer
Summary: A story about letting go.


Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

CC pulled the door shut behind her and let her hand linger on the doorknob, exhaling a heartfelt sigh. Who was she kidding? She was not even close to letting go. With every fiber of her being she was longing for a little extra time, another regular day. But unfortunately for CC today was no such day. She half turned around and stared through the window in the door.

"What if this is a mistake?" she asked half aloud, huffing little clouds into the winter air as she spoke. CC's hand nervously clutched her purse as she peered through the window.

Niles, who had observed his wife with mild amusement, smiled. "It'll be fine, you'll see. Once she gets back home later today she'll be all over you and tell you about all the adventures she's had."

"It's quite cold… isn't it?" she said, disregarding his statement, and started to use her free hand to fiddle with the collar of her coat, "Maybe I should have packed her another jacket...?"

She cast a helpless look at her husband. Niles smiled and half embraced her, bringing his arm around her back, and pressed a kiss to her temple.

Her eyes once again followed the tiny blonde girl on the other side of the door. She had sat down on one of the chairs in the middle of the room and had sturdily grabbed some pens from the middle of the table, leaning her upper torso across the desk in the process.

"She's still so tiny," CC uttered in a mere whisper.

"Thirty-seven and a half inches. I measured her just last week."

"Thirty-seven inches already…"

"And a half," Niles interjected dramatically. "She insists on that half-inch."

"I'm sure she does," CC replied with a proud grin on her face which made Niles chuckle. "Makes you wonder where the time went," she continued, studying his face and the lines around the eyes that grew deeper each day.

"It does," Niles replied.

Smiling, they both returned to watching their daughter through the glass.

"What do you think she's drawing?"

"Contracts," Niles replied without hesitation.

CC had to press her hand to her mouth to muffle the loud laugh that was threatening to escape her throat. "Yeah, she always does that when I am working. All she ever does is to paint squiggly lines all over the papers… and then she signs them…"

Niles face broke into a smile. He imagined the scene vividly before his eyes, CC sitting at the kitchen table, contracts, calculations, and casting calls splattered out in front of her, her face in a seemingly everlasting frown, only interrupted by a few happy glances to the person on her left. _Mommy, look_ , Sophia would squeal, wrinkling her nose while flashing her teeth in a way that melted her mother's annoyance within a split second, holding up a page full of squiggly lines signed SOSO BABCOCK in bold letters at the very bottom. _Good job, baby_ , CC would say, holding her close and pressing a kiss onto her daughter's unruly golden curls. Sometimes Niles would take pictures of the two, even if it was just to annoy CC. The first time he had pulled out the camera nobody had even remotely paid any attention to him. _Sophia, sweetie, look at the camera_ , Niles had said. Her stern response to him had been, _It's Soso, daddy, like mommy_ , and that had been the end of the discussion for Sophia. CC, on the other hand, had practically liquefied in her chair while her eyes were fixed on Niles through a teary haze. He had reached for CC's hand, pressed it and pushed the button.

Back in the present, Niles got hold of CC's hand and squeezed it gently.

"She'll be fine," Niles repeated relentlessly.

They watched for a while as Sophia busily painted with careful, almost skilful strokes. After some time, Sophia was joined by another girl, roughly a year older than she was and a boy around the same age. She smiled at them shyly, while they interrogated the new face in their midst.

"She looks so lost… a little scared, don't you think?" CC insisted, her hand still on the doorknob. They observed as Sophia introduced herself and was busy with her hand for a moment before she held up four fingers.

"It's her first day, Babs. Just give her time. Come on… let's go."

Niles noticed the nervous tightening of his wife's hand around his own.

"No… No. I can't do it," CC persevered.

Of course, he had long realized that Sophia wasn't the problem here.

"Of course you can," he replied.

Not the least bit soothed, CC gazed inside the house again. Sophia had vanished from the table, her painting lay discarded on it next to a box of crayons. CC stood on her tiptoes, moving her body back and forth to track her daughter amongst the other children until she lost track of her completely.

"See? Everything is going to be just fine. Of course she needs time adapting to everything, but so far, I would say she's done very well!"

"You think I'm making a fool out of myself, don't you?"

"Not more than usual," Niles quipped, a smirk on his face. CC narrowed her eyes at him.

"She's my baby," she sighed, her eyes once again transfixed on something inside the house.

"I know, love." He reached for CC's other hand, taking it into his own while CC reluctantly let go of the doorknob. "But I don't think Sophia is the one who's scared."

CC's eyes darted over to Niles's face before she let out a soft, resigned whimper. "I just want a little more time with her… she grew up so fast. And now I want to go inside and take her home. I'm horrible, I know."

Niles grinned.

"What is so funny?" she asked irritated.

"Nothing," Niles responded and tucked a stray curl behind CC's ear and kissed her on the lips lightly. "I just…" He shook his head ever so slightly.

"What?" CC demanded.

"You're a remarkable woman."

"I am not. I practically want to drag my child out of daycare just to have her with me because I've gotten so used to spending my days with her. Nothing remarkable about that. I'm just… a selfish mother who is about to rob her child of her daycare experience."

"You are not!" Niles said laughing and pulled her in for a hug. "You just love her – more than you thought you would. And there is nothing wrong with that."

Niles felt her head shake slightly against his own.

"You're crazy," she whispered into his hair. And out of her sight, Niles smirked.

"I know, I married you."

With that, she freed herself from his embrace and lightly slapped him across his chest before her face took on an endearing expression.

"I love you, you idiot."

"I know you do," he replied as they embraced each other anew with a kiss. "And I love you, too."

He brought his arm around her waist and she readily linked her arm with his hip as they ambled away from the house, casting one more backward glance as they passed the front gate and shut it behind them.


End file.
